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Chatham County sheriff's deputy facing molestation charge called 'Pied Piper of young boys'

Richard Hall

A prosecutor on Tuesday described Chatham County Deputy Sheriff Lt. Richard Adam “Rick” Hall as the “quintessential Pied Piper of young boys” in telling a judge investigators have found at least six new victims since a December bond hearing.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Greg McConnell said Hall is a serious danger to the public if he is released and cited evidence that Hall has influenced witnesses not to cooperate with investigators. Hall has been charged with aggravated child molestation stemming from an alleged 2008 incident.

Defense attorney Steven Beauvais had sought house arrest either at Hall’s Wilmington Island home or his mother’s home next door based on concerns over Hall’s medical problems, which Beauvais said were not being properly treated at the Chatham County jail.

McConnell said the investigation is being pursued seven days a week because prosecutors are faced with a “90-day time crunch” for indictment. If Hall is not indicted within 90 days of his arrest, his bond status changes and he is entitled to bond.

McConnell also told Walmsley investigators determined that Hall found some of his victims through their parents, who were involved in local DUI and drug courts.

The ongoing probe has unearthed evidence of 14 DVDs kept at Hall’s house, seven of which include young teen-aged boys. The prosecutor has viewed more than 33,000 graphic images, including child pornography. There were also reports of numerous young boys being at Hall’s home, McConnell said.

Hall, a 28-year veteran deputy sheriff, was arrested at his Wilmington Island home Dec. 20 on the molestation charge involving a male, now 17, that allegedly occurred in April/May 2008.

Beauvais has waived the charge to Superior Court, avoiding a preliminary hearing in Chatham County Recorder’s Court, and asked Walmsley to reconsider his initial denial of a bond.

Hall has remained in the Chatham County jail since his arrest. He has been placed on administrative leave without pay from his duties with the sheriff’s office on the Dec. 20 arrest date, Chief Deputy Sheriff Roy Harris said.

The sheriff’s department spearheaded the investigation after receiving allegations against Hall and, in conjunction with the District Attorney’s office, obtained the search and arrests warrants for the Dec. 20 action, he said.

During a bond hearing in Walmsley’s chambers, McConnell revealed that Hall was the subject of a federal child porn probe and that federal officials had planned to execute a search warrant at Hall’s home at about the same time as the local action.

Local prosecutors have asked for the federal investigative file, he said.

Meanwhile, McConnell said investigators have found new victims, including one who is working on an oil rig in Louisiana, who told investigators they would be “surprised by the number of victims molested by Hall.”

Another victim, now 37 and in prison, tearfully told investigators that Hall molested him at Hall’s home during the period between June 1987 and June 1993, McConnell said.

Another alleged victim told investigators he needed money, but initially denied sexual contact with Hall and agreed, then reneged, to take polygraph exams on his testimony.

“‘What’s the big deal?’” McConnell said the person finally asked investigators. “‘It was just sex for money.’”

Other disclosures by McConnell included identification of Hall as driving a 15-seat, white sheriff’s department van to a school to pick up one of his victims and that a search of Hall’s sheriff’s vehicle found “top secret federal law enforcement documents” which identified targets of federal investigations that only three people nationally had access to.